The background
Defence spending dominated PMQs yesterday, with Gordon Brown saying – incorrectly – that the defence budget had increased every year in real terms (as we FactChecked here).

But in the parliamentary question-slinging, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg made an interesting claim of his own. He said the government spent 11 times more on “locking up” children, than preventing them from brushing with the law.

Is he right?

The analysis
The Youth Justice Board – a quango with an annual budget of nearly £500mn- oversees the youth justice system in England and Wales.

“Ten times more is spent on custody than on prevention, which accounts for 5 per cent of YJB expenditure,” it said. It was “striking” that the balance was tilted so far in this way, the report’s authors noted.

This was based on figures from 2006-7, and was in fact a slight understatement. Go back to the raw data, and in that year, 11.78 times more was spent on custody than prevention programmes.

In contrast, £36.5mn is going on prevention programmes (up from £24mn in 2006-7).

So while the amount being spent on custodial places has increased marginally, the amount going on prevention has increased significantly. This is mostly to do with extra Home Office funding for a prevention of violent extremism programme.

According to these new figures, the Youth Justice Board now spends eight times as much on – to quote Clegg, locking children up – than on prevention.

“You’re talking about custodial places, which involve bricks and mortar, and so will cost more than prevention programmes,” said CCJS’s Richard Garside, the report’s co-author.

“But it is instructive how much more is spent on custody, as an indication of where the government’s priorities lie.”

The verdict
Clegg was right to say that much more is spent on youth custody than on prevention programmes. But he used outdated figures, which meant he gave an exaggerated picture in parliament.

His broad point is right but FactCheck can’t forgive him for using the wrong set of figures so we have to rate it on the side of fiction.

Clegg’s spokesman said the Lib Dems will update their briefings on the issue. “Needless to say, we remain of the view that spending eight or eleven times (as much on custodial places for children than prevention) are both a scandal,” he said.

More from Channel 4 FactCheck

3 reader comments

Anthony Martinsays:

Crime by anyone of any age is mainly as a result of poverty, inequality, no benefit entitlement, family breakdown, lone parents, poor roll-models, no motivational peers, poor education and desperation just to live.
Whether you are the Police carrying out the dictatorial laws on these victims of a broken society or, a fat-cat business exec. on a private jet to
your luxury ‘second mansion’, the fact is, children are committing crimes as a result of all the above.
The ‘hang ’em and flog ’em’ brigade are just the ignorant kind we’ve come to expect from the detached people, many of whom are at the root cause.
Children grow up. As they have from the 60s, 70, 80s, but, they too suffered the same social divide and misery. They’ve gone on to have children even for reasons of getting a house or, family allowance, etc. Their children are now the anti-social thugs and teenagers of broken Britain. No hope, no help, no roll models. no inspiration, no future. And the situation just continues.
Children are not generally born thugs or criminals. They develop into ’em in the cesspit of the real Victorian squaller of HRHs ‘Ununited Kingdom’ of ‘Great’ Britain.
The costs of imprisoning young people are far beyond fiscal calculations. The costs are on society as a whole.
Final conclusion: Those who are the root causes of misery, deprivation, inequality, unrestrained capitalism, family breakdown, etc. are the true criminals. They reside mainly in parliament and, the affluent (effluent seems befitting) in society.

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